Catch your mistakes with the help of these five proofreading apps

Catch your mistakes with the help of these five proofreading apps

I've written a lot over the years. In fact, between tech
articles and fiction, I write more than five thousand words a day. For my
fiction, I depend upon beta readers, editors, and proofers to see what I
cannot. For everything else, I depend upon proofreading tools. You'd be
surprised just how many apps and services exist for that very purpose. But
which tools are right for the job?

I'm going to outline my five favorite proofing tools. Out of
that list, you should find one or two to integrate into your process. With the
help of these tools, your marketing material, correspondence, and business communications
will be far more professional.

Google Docs

This might sound crazy, but the Google Docs built-in grammar
checker is pretty solid. It's not just a spell check, either. It uses a fairly
powerful engine to check your text for grammatical correctness. It's not
perfect, but it has saved me a lot of work.

Google Docs

Google
Docs checks as you type and will underline misspellings and any grammar errors
it detects. Some would argue
that Microsoft Word's grammar checker is more powerful — and in some respects it
is. But what I like about Google Docs is that it never bogs down as it checks
grammar, like Word can. When you find an underlined word, right-click it and
select from the suggested replacements.

Google Docs Consistency Checker

Google Docs Consistency Checker is an add-on for
Google Docs. It doesn't focus on spelling or grammar. Instead, it checks longer
documents where consistency must be maintained. Consistency Checker looks for
inconsistencies in hyphenation, spelling, numerals, abbreviations, and much
more.

Google Docs Consistency Checker

Using this tool is one of the fastest ways to ensure a level
of consistency throughout your documents. Install Consistency Checker in the
same way you install any Google Docs add-on. Once it's installed (and with your
document open), go to Add-ons, click Consistency Checker | Open, and then click
Scan (when prompted). You can then go through the various checks by clicking
Next after each pass is complete.

One nice feature is that you
will be informed of how many contractions your document contains. Consistency Checker
will then remind you to change those, if you're writing a formal document.
Consistency checker is an extension of the Intelligent Editing online service and is
free.

Text-to-speech

Text-to-speech is fairly generic, but hearing your document
read to you is an outstanding way to proof it. Not only will you more easily
catch spelling errors, you will hear awkward sentences, phrases, and
paragraphs. This is something no other tool can give you, and I highly
recommend listening to your text as a proofing technique.

To do this, you have a number
of options. You can always read your text out loud. (Of course, that can get
annoying to those around you.) Unfortunately, for some odd reason, you can't
use the Amazon Kindle app on your Android for reading books out loud. To get
this working for your Android, you must install the Ivona Reader app and then enable
the Talkback feature.

Text-to-speech

This approach may be less than ideal, so if you have a Kindle Reader, you might want to upload a
.mobi version of your document and have it read aloud. (Converting to .mobi is
simple using Calibre.)

Grammarly

Grammarly is an online service that isn't exactly cheap, but it does a great job of
checking your documents for grammar, spelling, and more. You can sign up for a
free account, but if you do, Grammarly will only tell you that your document has errors. To actually see the errors, you must have a paid
account. Paid accounts run $29.95 (monthly), $59.95 (quarterly), and $139.95
(yearly).

Grammarly

Grammarly will find and fix more than 250 types of errors
and helps you improve word choice. It also includes a plagiarism checker. You
can either cut and paste your document into the Grammarly system or, if your
document is longer, upload the file. Like every other automated grammar checker
and proofer, Grammarly is not perfect — especially when it comes to full-length
novels. But for professional copy (letters, PR releases, etc.), this online
service does an outstanding job.

Ginger

Ginger
is a great proofing app that offers an easy-to-use desktop tool and a
Chrome extension. You must sign up for an account, but it's free. Once signed
up, you can type or copy text into either tool and have Ginger check what you've
typed for grammar issues.

Ginger

Ginger will
also check for possible rephrasing of sentences. Just enter your text and click
the quill icon to have Ginger check for suggestions. Ginger has a built-in
dictionary, translator, synonyms, phrase of the day, and much more. Ginger is
available for Android and IOS as well.

Catch your mistakes with the help of these five proofreading apps

I've written a lot over the years. In fact, between tech
articles and fiction, I write more than five thousand words a day. For my
fiction, I depend upon beta readers, editors, and proofers to see what I
cannot. For everything else, I depend upon proofreading tools. You'd be
surprised just how many apps and services exist for that very purpose. But
which tools are right for the job?

I'm going to outline my five favorite proofing tools. Out of
that list, you should find one or two to integrate into your process. With the
help of these tools, your marketing material, correspondence, and business communications
will be far more professional.

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About Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.

Full Bio

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.